Undertow
by SniperCT
Summary: Weeks before setting out to find Maui, Moana goes cliff jumping with her friends. Disaster strikes and Moana has to decide between her own life or saving another.


Moana was distracted as usual, eyes drifting out to sea. The sharp rap of a cane drew her attention back to her grandmother, who winked before continuing the lesson. But her eyes were drawn away again, this time to a group her age as they ran and jostled their way towards the cliffs. The older she got, the less time she got to spend with them. When she was Chief, would she have any friends? Did her dad?

"Oh, go on with your friends. But if anything happens," Tala grinned, glancing towards Pua. "Blame it on the pig."

Moana jumped up and rushed out of the hut, tossing a thank you behind her before skirting around the outside of the village. Climbing one of the palms, she used it as a shortcut, leaping over to a thin ledge and then scaled the rest of the way up. Moana was waiting when her trio of friends arrived.

A girl with wide brown eyes gasped, staring at her. "Moana! How did you beat us? I thought you had lessons."

"Gramma let me out a little early, Hinatea." Moana folded her arms smugly, glancing at the other two, twin boys. "So what are you up to? Itu? Tanu?"

"We're gonna go diving." Tanu walked over to the edge and peered over it. He gestured excitedly. "See? It's real deep. Our dad dives in all the time!"

Moana peered over the edge. The water was far below them, but it did look very deep. She looked back at the others, "It looks dangerous."

"It's not, and it looks like fun," Hinatea said. She grabbed Moana's arm and leaned against her. "We never see you any more. I know you're busy and it's important, but it's also important to relax sometimes too."

It did look fun and exciting, and fun and exciting were things that Moana desperately needed right now. That, and it was really, really hard to resist something she kind of wanted to do anyway. Moana hesitated. She had a responsibility to lead by example, and there was a lot of risk. Someone could get hurt. What would her dad say? Now that was a scary thought. Gramma? Her grandmother would probably just nudge her off the ledge so she wasn't the best example to think of.

But then Hinatea just _had_ to use _those_ eyes. She looked at the twins, both of whom were pouting in her direction as well. "Okay. Fine! M _ay_ be it'll come in handy some day?"

The three cheered. Hinatea's touch on her arm lingered a little too long as they gathered around to play a quick game to determine who got to go first. Hinatea won, and suddenly looked a lot less confident. "Lucky me! I think."

Tanu squeezed her shoulder. "Remember, go stiff. Da says the best way is feet first. You have to cut through the water because it's a lot like landing on the ground."

"You can do it, Hinatea." Moana gave her an encouraging smile and that seemed to restore the girl's confidence.

"Okay. I can do this!" Hinatea backed away from the edge as she tied her hair back. Once she had enough distance, she took a deep breath, then sprinted towards the ocean. Her shriek as she fell drifted up to them, and Moana leaned over to watch.

Itu laughed. "That was crazy, me next!"

"No, me!"

"Wait." Moana held up her hand, eyes focused on the water, but she couldn't see Hinatea. Her eyes narrowed, but the longer she looked the more certain she was that there wasn't much time.

"She's not surfacing!" Tanu didn't notice Moana moving until she passed him in a blur and jumped. "Moana!"

Moana felt her stomach float into her chest just before gravity took hold of her. Stiffening her body like a tree, Moana hit the water feet first. Pain shot up from the soles of her feet all the way to her hips and she barely stopped herself from crying out in shock and inhaling a lungful of water. Water swirled around her until she got oriented, and looked around. Her hair floated past her face, following an unseen current and she thought she saw something vaguely girl-shaped in that direction and below. Surfacing, she took in another breath, then dove.

Kicking as hard as she'd ever had in her life, she swam down until she saw a hand reaching up towards her. Grasping it, Moana tugged, but Hinatea didn't budge. She tugged again, planting her foot against a rock to try to get more purchase.

When that didn't work she got closer, and saw that the girl was trapped by a part of the rock that jutted out, curving at an angle like a shelf. They were deep enough that the light had begun to fade leaving everything murky and dark and the water was almost chilly. Desperate, Moana wrapped an arm around Hinatea's waist and tried to push her in a different direction. That helped a little bit, but she had to dive further and dislodge Hinatea's foot from a crack in the shelf.

The current suddenly pulled them both deeper and towards the sea. Moana struggled to fight it without losing her grip on her friend and she was strong enough that she could probably escape it, but that would require abandoning her friend. Not happening.

She grasped and clawed at some rocks until she found purchase, then pulled with all of her might. Her lungs were starting to burn but she couldn't give up, she wouldn't. The rock crumbled under her fingers and she thought they were going to die. Then something strange happened. The current shifted and the next thing she knew they were free of it and the surface was just close enough.

Moana burst out of the water, gasping and inhaling greedily. Hauling Hinatea onto the shore, Moana fell to her knees next to her, leaning over and straining for any sign of breath against her cheek. There was nothing. Panic welled up inside of her, and she pushed it back down, turning Hinatea onto her side and smacking her on the back. "No no, _no_!"

Itu and Tanu scrambled down the cliff as Moana hit Hinatea on the back again and again. A coldness seeped into Moana's chest. This was her fault, she could have stopped this. They would have listened to her.

But then Hinatea started coughing up water. Moana rubbed her back, holding her as she started to come to. "I'm here. Itu and Tanu are too, you're okay."

"I'm sorry, I hit the water wrong." Hinatea's eyes drifted from Moana to Tanu. "I wasn't stiff enough."

"Moana, you're crazy. And amazing! Crazy amazing!" Tanu knelt next to them, and nodded his head towards Moana. "She hit the water like a tree."

"We need to get you home," Moana said. "Can you walk? We can...just say we were swimming and there was a sudden undertow." It wasn't really that much of a stretch.

Hinatea frowned. "I think so."

"You could carry her," Itu suggested. "I think she'd like that."

"What?" Moana looked at Itu, but before he could respond, someone approached them.

"What have we here? Are you all okay?"

Moana's head snapped up at the sound of her mother's voice. "There was undertow." She looked around, but Pua was nowhere to be found, so she couldn't actually blame it on the pig.

Sina looked between them, "Boys, take Hinatea home. Moana, you stay."

Moana helped Hinatea to her feet, then held her until Tanu and Itu were able to hold her. She rubbed at her arm as the three headed up to the treeline, before walking over to Sina.

"What really happened, Moana?"

"Mom, I'm sorry, I..." Moana lowered her head. "They wanted to dive. It didn't look that dangerous. It looked fun."

"As a leader, people are going to look to you to guide them, Moana." Sina swept her arm across the lagoon. "You're going to be our Chief. And yes you can still have fun, and do things you love. But you've a responsibility to others and to yourself to show us the way."

She put her arm around Moana. "I saw you dive in."

Moana leaned into her. "I'm sorry. I should have stopped us. She could have died."

"You risked your life to save your friend," Sina replied. "You didn't even hesitate. If this was a test, I think you passed it. You're going to be a good Chief, Moana. The village will follow you because you inspire them. They'll follow you anywhere."

Eyes drifting to the sea, Moana wasn't as certain of that. There was one place she wanted to go more than any other and something deep inside her told her if she left, it would be alone.

"Even there," Sina whispered. She knew how much the sea called to her daughter. She'd seen it every day - and every day in her husband, too. In time Moana would learn to ignore it. Whether that lesson would be a painful one or not, there was no way to tell. "But not today."

"Not today," Moana echoed. "What are you going to tell dad?"

"You saved your friend. That's all that matters." Sina smiled. "He'll understand."


End file.
